How did you know?

I got to a place in my life where I felt I could not live any longer and I had a 2 year old so I also felt I could not do anything to myself that was harmful. So in desperation I called out to God for help and he heard me and shocked me by answering my prayer.

As far as religion goes I became what I am with God. I was raised Catholic, much Christian influence but as my pleasures in life turned to more troubles I have paid better attention and been pushed and I push problems aside. Became more confused and overwhelmed, looking for answers. Seeing more lights. Everybody is different, let us put our differences aside. Celebrate life. Know there is both good and bad. Just behave. A witch is not a witch just some twisted traditions. Take away tradition and every religion becomes basically the same. I celebrate some catholic and Christian traditions still. I am great full to the Earth and every other spirit. Also I join Muslim party's when they party because they are my people and it is there tradition so lets celebrate. I am one with this world and will experience all that one can. I will live and learn, not lay my way of life on no man but express myself and only invite them to join me in my celebrations.

I grew up with religion. Throughout my life I always prayed and thanked God for everything even my pitfalls. I was a pushover to say the least, very naive and never took enough responsibility for my own actions as I was just thinking that I was falling into temptation and failing. Then in my late 20's I started to attend a bible study and the priest started talking about Jesus parables, like I had never heard before, they weren't cute stories to show teachings of compassion and love for your fellow neighbour, but quite the opposite. They were revelations of prejudice in the Pharisees and so forth and were questioning and debunking to the whole religious system, this is why they wanted to kill him, just as they would if he was around today. So it's quite ironic that a Catholic priest sewed the seed in me that led me to maturity, to grow up and start taking responsibility for my own wrongdoing. I am now in control of my own life and continue to learn and grow each day and am excited about being open minded about things that I just accepted as true. Once you get to where I feel I am, theres no turning back and I can say with 100% clarity that I will never search for the "right" religion ever again

Upbringing that allowed me to choose my religion, a many year stint in several Christian churches in which the precepts were taught all the time, yet no one seemed to hear them. Didn't sour me on the precepts, but it sure soured me on the followers.

Lots of reading and research into history and the history of religion made me realize that almost all religions have the same sets of stories - creation, flood, the sacrificed child of the main god, etc - led me to the realization that gods have been the construct of man based on need and place and time, and that further belief may have actually caused these gods not only to manifest, but transform throughout time. As long as somone believed in a version of this or that god, they would continue to exist.

I hold no religion - I believe all the gods that ever existed have a right to exist and deserve acknowledgement, but I don't worship any.

My Parents both lectured in Micro-Biology at a local University. They were more cultural Presbyterians than anything else.

I spent all my High school in a Catholic (1 year) & an Anglican school. By the time I was 15 I realised just how similar both Roman Catholic & Church of England were. I got disillusioned by watching what was happening in Ireland because of two almost identical faiths.

As a teen, I read the bible - took me several years but I did read it. So I just called my self a Christian getting more & more disillusioned how even that wasn't acceptable by the "powers that be".

Well ,In my drugg addiction and alchoholosm I came close to dying in more that a few occasions, and when I'm down and out, I find myself being helped by Christians. I took it a bit further and tried prayer and now I'm convinced that there is a God who cares, all we have to do is turn to him. Its not so much aboput religion, as it is about personal relationship with the Father through Christ! Its an amazing thing. Ask, and it will be given to you!

Bible reading and questioning religious leaders of many different faiths caused me to start rejecting all religions and finally to accept the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses. I studied 7 years NOT to be a Jehovah's Witness--then, another year to become one after I finally discovered that they were the only ones who could show me in the Bible how all the many pieces of the puzzle fit together to make a whole truth.

Emergency services is a highly organised field of work. It needs hierarchy.

Religion means "to retie" or "bind fast." It depends whether you're talking about binding your behaviour to what you see around you or binding up the broken-hearted. Isaiah 61:1 - "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoner."

In terms of what you see around you, this is different to integrity Bible-style. Proverbs 3:5, 6 says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." There are a few references in the Bible that refer to your self-perception. Wicked feet run to shed blood. Righteous feet are shod with the good news of peace.

Colossians 2:18 - "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such people also go into great detail about what they have seen, and their unspiritual minds puff them up with idle notions." This could refer to the relationship between the anarchy and the hierarchy (Joseph Campbell's creative mythology and traditional mythology). The hierachy has numerous ways of ritualising the people from the anarchy who speak to them. They don't pay much attention to the messages, but they do put a lot of effort into the ceremonies. They tend to be richly rewarded for this too, with land and money. The anarchy don't really get a voice, but they do get a lot of attention. They might not get much of a say over what kind of rituals take place, and some of them are brutal. But they'll still extol the virtues of the messengers. (Angel means "messenger.") They are also likely to be psychotic as they have idle notions in their minds. It's like they just make spaces in their rituals for the anarchists to pop in every so often and say "something."

I am trying to contrast here the Bible's style of integrity as being something that belongs to the heart wherever you go, rather than an ability to "play the game" with few complaints from people who get heard.

I was very active in my church. When my quality of life suffered and my religion did not help, I risked listening to my own heart. I no longer go to any church. I have never experienced greater freedom. I am not anti-religion, but I realize just like one eventually graduates from school and moves onto living and learning through life, one must also graduate from the school of religion if one wants to ever experience any degree of enlightenment.

Witnessing human tragedy everyday and being their for the worst of it every day definitly is a small snapshot of the places people have been, and your small role in assisting.

I am a Christian my parents converted when I was one. I researched and nearly rebelled at 16-18years. Life was crap and it hurt a lot. God really came through for me. If you had of been the ambulance officers who had to give me 2 green tubie things you would possibly come to the same conclusion as you have now, but you didn't get to see the things God showed the peace he gave me, the protection (yes he did protect me as well, even if it wasn't for that time -he protected me from the worst -what would have clinched it and killed me.)

It is relationship with Jesus Christ that has me surviving that has enriched my life and blessed me.